FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Head Coach Steve Fairchild and the Colorado State Rams will open the first chapter of the 2010 football season in roughly a month when they begin spring practices March 25. CSU’s annual spring game and free community pancake breakfast is April 24.

Spring practice will kick off several competitions, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Since the early signing and enrollment of Pete Thomas over the winter, CSU fans have been highly anticipating the quarterback competition at spring practice. That competition for the starting role will begin March 25 with at least four candidates: Senior Jon Eastman, junior T.J. Borcky, redshirt freshman Nico Ranieri and Thomas. Junior Klay Kubiak, recovering from October shoulder surgery, is expected to be limited to begin the spring.

Borcky, Fairchild said, will also play wide receiver, the dual role he held for much of the 2009 season. Obviously Thomas needs to earn the job, but if he wins the starting role, he’ll follow in the footsteps of Utah’s Jordan Wynn and Michigan’s Tate Forcier, who graduated high school a semester early, enrolled at their schools in time for spring ball and became starters as true freshmen last season.

Perhaps the position with the deepest talent is the running back group. Fans will get their first glimpse at Raymond Carter competing for the starting role. Carter is a UCLA transfer eligible this season who was ranked by Rivals.com as the country’s No. 3 all-purpose back out of Los Angeles’ Crenshaw High School in 2007. Also at the position are returning starters John Mosure and Leonard Mason, along with CSU’s own version of thunder and lightning, redshirt freshman Chris Nwoke and shifty sophomore Lou Greenwood.

CSU returns 92 percent of its rushing yards from 2009, and that’s before the 2010 eligibility of Carter and Nwoke.

After boasting the most experienced offensive line in college football in 2009, the Rams will look to a new group to keep the dominant line play going in 2010. The four starters CSU lost to graduation on the offensive line are all likely to be in NFL training camps this summer.

On the defensive side, the Rams will have nine starters returning, including all the linebackers.

CSU will conduct the NCAA-allowed 15 practices within the permitted 34-day period, including the April 24 spring game. The NCAA allows contact in 12 of those sessions. Eight of those 12 can involve tackling, and three of those eight can be devoted primarily to 11-on-11 scrimmages.

Most weekday practices are held from 3:30-6 p.m. All outdoor sessions are on the fields south of Moby Arena or at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium, and are expected to be free and open to the public and media. However, due to space limitations, practices moved inside the Indoor Practice Facility will be closed to the public and media. Check with the CSU athletic media relations office for confirmation.

The following are the 2010 spring practice dates (all days, times and locations subject to change with little or no notice):

Thu., March 25

Practice #1

Sat., March 27

Practice #2

Sun., March 28

Practice #3

Tue., March 30

Practice #4

Thu., April 1

Practice #5

Sat., April 3

Practice #6 (9:30 a.m., stadium)

Tue., April 6

Practice #7

Thu., April 8

Practice #8

Sat., April 10

Practice #9 (9:30 a.m., stadium)

Tue., April 13

Practice #10

Thu., April 15

Practice #11

Fri., April 16

Practice #12 (4 p.m., stadium)

Tue., April 20

Practice #13

Thu., April 22

Practice #14

Sat., April 24

Practice #15 (spring game)

CSU also will hold six clinics and camps, sponsored by Shred-It, throughout spring and summer, beginning with the annual coaches clinic (April 23-24) in conjunction with the spring game. The Rams coaching staff also will conduct a youth camp (June 2-4), lineman camp (June 6-7), the Steve Fairchild quarterback school (June 6-7), and two one-day junior/senior camps (June 13 and July 31). For more information, call 970/491/6131.